. >> day two of the democratic national convention is under way here in charlotte. crowd behind me is as energized as ever as the party tries to rekindle its 2008 magic. the president just touchdown down on air force one in charlotte. he'll be formally accepting renomination tomorrow night. inside the convention hall. actually, that is probably the biggest news to come out of charlotte today. the democrats will been planning for another outdoor stadium acceptance speech like they had in denver in 2008. the threat of inclement weather has officially forced a move from the carolina panthers it football stadium to the charlotte bobcats basketball arena. a lot of republicans are claiming this is actually because the democrats couldn't fill up the stadium for clinton. i would have to say talking to a few people involved in this, i think their excuse on this is legitimating from this

standpoint. if you have a threat of thunderstorms tomorrow night, then you have the possibility that the speech would have to be postponed. maybe an hour delay, maybe a two-hour delay like you might have a sporting event. that knocks you out of primetime potentially and you can think of the nightmare for the democrats of 1972. george mcgovern delivered his acceptance speech at 2:00 in the morning because of all sorts of chaos at the convention. they didn't want to risk that at all. he'll be in the arena. other news, we have bill clinton. we teased him there. there is another major speech tonight at 10:00. that is elizabeth warren probably the most celebrated liberal candidate for the u.s. senate this year. this is a very important speech for her tonight because her campaign, to be honest with you, is not going the way she and democrats hoped it would. she has fallen behind scott brown in the race in massachusetts and needs a break-through moment tonight. that brings us to bill clinton. he will be the star tonight unquestionably delivering, this is the seventh consecutive

national, democratic convention he will deliver a featured primetime address, the second time he will place a democrats name in.nomination. the first was michael dukakis. i'm kinds of amused because republicans are beginning their preemptive pushback against the clinton speech and it rests on the idea we like bill clinton. the 1990s were great and barack obama is nothing like bill clinton. i get a little smile on my face. it's almost like they didn't impeach the guy. why don't we get your thoughts up there on the big bill clinton speech tonight. >> i'm thinking about what is the it actual relationship between bill and barack. maureen dowd has an interesting thought in today's "new york times." it's not a bro man's, she says, it's a transaction. they're working together to help each other. ryan lizza has an interesting comment in his new yorker piece about the relationship between bram and clinton when he says this is a very clintontonian

move. he pitched himself as the antidote to the clintonism, now presenting himself as the heir apparent. it's a tactical maneuver on obama's part. for me it recalls ted kennedy's support of fwhoem 2008 when the big han in the party came down and put his arm around barack and said i can support this guy. you can support him. now to have the superstar of the party come down and say i'm still with him says a lot for barack obama. >> and you know, a lot has been made of how bill clinton, we respect sure what he's going to say. there's this history in this relationship. but i've got to say, this is a guy, one of the most skilled olticians in the country if not the most skilled politician in the country. he certainly knows how to deliver a speech. it is not in his interests at all, which is always at the front of bill clinton's mind, what is his interest and the best interests of his wife to undermine the president in any

way. i think the nervousness around the speech has been a little bit overblown here. >> so there's plenty of anticipation here about the clinton speech tonight, but the crowd is still buzzing about the first lady's speech last night. let's take a listen to some of the highlights from that. >> to me, he was still the guy who picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, i could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side door. >> i have seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are. no, it reveals who you are. barack knows the american dream because he's lived it. and he wants everyone in this country, everyone to have the same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love. >> you guys, my take on that was

i thought that was a really fascinating contrast with romney that she drew without ever having to mention the name mitt romney or the republicans at all. she just basically told barack obama's story in a way i think if you've been following this campaign at all, if you're even an average consumer of political news, you know the romney story, you know he's the son of privilege, you know his sort of bearing. you hear that obama story and when you're looking at a campaign, it's about who can get sort of middle class swing voters on their side. i think that's a powerful message she delivered last night. >> steve, it was absolutely a powerful message especially at the end i felt like she was taking us to courage, the repetition, the rhetorical attack, the way she was soaring over the applause of the crowd, not waiting but continuing. i felt it was a baptist church sermon. also, i mean, best speech of either convention so far. i don't want to put her in the first lady category. it's too spaul for her. it's the best speech we've heard

so far, the best tweet of the night talking about well, ann romney must have been at home throwing dishes at the television which is pure comedy. seriously, the moment of the night for me is when michelle talked about being president doesn't change who you are. it reveals who you are. so the point becomes his character which we know that you like and respect is the reason why you should re-elect him. i know you were moved too. >> absolutely. there were many tears in my household. but i have to say, i was taking the subway to work this morning and listening to some of the conversations around me and what one of my fellow passengers said stuck me. there was something in that speech for everyone. she represented us. and i think that's the key thing. she connected not just with the narrow the segment of the population or a particular subgroup, she really connected with the american people and with american values. i mean, for me the thing that we fell in love with really above everything else about barack

obama and about michelle obama is what they say about the american dream. here are two people from the unlikeliest of backgrounds raising themselves up, attaining huge incredible personal success and still remaining committed first and foremost to their family and their community. one moment in particular that struck me in her speech is she talked about coming from humble means, but it didn't sound like a hardship. she spoke of the joy and the pride and the hard work in that household, which i think is a powerful rebuttal to the sort of you didn't build that narrative that comes from the republicans and the idea that poor people who require government assistance are lazy, shiftless, dependent. no, there was pride and there was responsibility in that household. >> well, you know, i think it was a great speech. she looked great. she sounded great. in some senses, i would say that michelle obama is a much moral effective speaker than even her

husband who is a very gifted speaker. i couldn't find her eyes on the prompter. she was ip credibly natural. tourre, you're right her cadence was very effective. it was a great speech. i will say, i think she delivered the you didn't build that message, and she did. she delivered that message but in a much better way, a more effective way tha president obama did when he did it. it felt off the cuff and because it was off the cuff, it felt caustic. it felt bitter. it felt smug. when she delivered the same economic message essentially, she did it in a way that felt compassionate, uplifting. it was emotional. and it was just a tighter narrative. she didn't seem to go off script. it was a succinct message that i think resonated probably a lot better than president obama's did in roanoke. >> you know, i've got to tell you guys if there's one pet peeve i've had in terms of the reaction to her speech last

night, i think we're all in agreement, a really strong speech. now we're hearing all the obligatory now michelle obama can pick up the obama tradition and run for office when barack obama's through. >> i'm in. >> no. >> but you know, i don't know if you read it, but jody captor wrote a book about the obamas and about their marriage and about michelle obama this year. if you read that book, this woman is not interested in getting into politics herself. she's committed to her husband's campaign. >> steve, we can dream. we can dream. come on, this is america. a girl can dream. >> wanted to barack at certain points in his life. >> i'm well aware but i still would love it. >> but krystal, you can dream and meanwhile, we'll go to a commercial break and have more of my thoughts on president clinton at the end of the show. up next, michelle wasn't the only one lighting this place on fire last night. getting to know the san antonio mayor who is giving castro a good name in america. that and more on the cycle as we roll on wednesday, september 5th. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ]

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>> it was a big night for the dems and for san antonio mayor julian castro who burst onto the national scene, delivering the keynote speech and, of course, there were also michelle obama's touching closing remarks about her husband. but the night wasn't all soft. it was -- there were also attacks on mitt romney. >> he just has no idea how good he's had it. >> maybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to someone with a swiss bank account, a cayman island investment. >> mitt romney talks a lot about all the things he fixed. i can tell you, massachusetts was not one of them. >> mitt romney had a chance to show his support for the brave men and women he is seeking to command. but he chose to criticize president obama instead of even uttering the word afghanistan.

>> whoo. let's bring in political analyst and former rnc chair michael seal. how is it going. >> i'm great. how are you doing? >> i'm doing very well. you were in tampa and charlotte. compare the two a little bit for us. ho had the stronger night out of the gates. one of the things that struck me was not just the quality of the presentations on the stage from the speakers, but also some of the video montages that they put together. one senator kennedy, one on the affordable care act, one introducing michelle obama i also thought added to the sort of emotional tenor of the night. what did you think? >> i think the energy level here is clearly different and it's excited and it's palpable in many respects. but you had some of that also at the rnc. a lot of folks are trying to play the rnc convention as sort of like people standing around at a cocktail party just tink ling their glasses. that wasn't the fact. there was police officer energy there. but it's a different kind of

energy. keep in mind the folks at these conventions are the hard chargers in both parties. but i think more so than any place else, last night, it was palpable here. the first time i think the democrats felt they reconnected with a lot of voter who have been sitting back on the sideline to kind of create that gap people are talking about between that energy gap between the base of the party and the president. but last night, the speakers lined it up well. they hit it out of the park. no doubt about that, but you know, we've got more rounds to go. >> i came across a tweet last night from our friend rich lowrie of national review. he said basically i didn't watch the rnc on tv as much. were there delegates at the gop convention who were also on the verge of tears. i think this is why most journalists decide to watch these conventions on tv as i did even though i was in tampa because you want those crowd shots and you don't want to be

sort of beholding to the emotion of the room inside the hall. and it was camera shot after camera shot of people on the verge of tears throughout the rnc, especially that last night as mitt romney's friends were talking about their sick and past children and the olympic athletes getting on. it was an incredibly emotional night. so the energy might be different, but i mean, there was a lot of emotion around the rnc and some of those packages were incredibly moving. did you feel that. >> oh, absolutely se. that's the point, the difference is, i think in many respects the rnc at the rnc convention, those emotive moments were more packed towards the end. that may have a lot to do with having to reorganize the whole idea of the monday event coming and having to happen on tuesday. that took away some speeches and some of that momentum.

so you kind of pushed everything more towards the back. with that slow rampup, the democrats hit the ground running. those camera shots were the same whether you're in tampa or here in charlotte. and how people relate to the overall story, that's part of it. i think for rich lowrie and others who weren't following it on television, you missed those moments but they were there. >> i can't help but wonder how many of those tears in tampa were during clint eastwood's speech but maybe fur a different reason. >> there we go. >> i'm sorry. >> charlotte and look what happens. >> i couldn't resist. i wanted to make a point. we played a clip from are julian castro the keynote speaker last night. that's sort of like michelle obama's speech getting great reviews afterwards and people are talking about what a bright future this guy has. it was a very moving speech. and there's a tradition with that keynote slot especially at the democratic convention of serving as a launching pad for

future national leaders. barack obama the most famous example. mario cuomo in '884. he could have had the nomination off that '84 speech. ann richards at the 1988 convention. two years later they're calling her governor. when i look at castro, i see a problem. he's still in texas. a generation ago as become a very reliably conservative state and the hope for democrats has been the demographics in that state are changing in a way where it's going to be more hispanics, a bigger share of the democratic vote and maybe that makes it work. i look at castro and am like, where does he go from mayor of san antonio. >> i don't think he can become governor or senator in the next few years. there's a lot of potential. i don't see the path. >> that's one of the reasons why the republicans need to get on the stick when it comes to the hispanic vote at large. when you look the an a state like texas and you touched on

it, the demographics with shifting there. i would not blanketly say that someone like castro doesn't have a political future in a state like texas because we know what texas is turning into in terms of the diversity of population and diversity of opinion there. the reality is for the republican party is america's changing. and when you see someone like castro standing, you know, at the front of the line ready to come into the room, you better have your act together and better have your own complement of talent in blue states like my home state of maryland or in the northeast like new york and vermont to sort of create that synergy the other way. if you don't, you're standing opt sideline for a very, very long time while those guys take off and run with it. >> talk about the future of the conventions. both of them are seeing ratings down, dnc first night, rnc overall. is the future shorter convention, maybe one day, maybe two days, or is there a money big donor wooing thing going on

off stage that you can't shorten it because we've got to get as much money out of the big guys as we can? >> it doesn't matter how many days you have, the money's going to be there. you can pile the money in in three days instead of four. i think the conventions in 2016 are going to be a lot shorter than they are today. we've already shown on the republican side that you can go ahead and do a three-day convention, even though mother nature had a lot do with that. we pulled it off successfully. that's the predicate. we see neen charlotte the democrats making the conscious decision to have a three-day convention. that's now going to be the maximum number of days i could even see a two-day. you can do the business of the party in a relatively short period of time. you cut back on some of the speeches and focus on the central act. the president, the vice presidential, the first lady speeches and then you lock and load and out the door. >> both of the conventions had a lot of diversity on stage. looking at the differences between the two crowds, when i

looked at the crowd last night, i saw america. i saw old, young, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. everything. when you look that the crowd, i had to think to myself, we're winning. i don't mean just in terms of november. i mean in terms of the longer term, the coalition of the ascendent. this is what america is increasingly looking like. when you look at that crowd, do you feel nervous for the future of the republican party? >> well, when i look at the crowd, i see america, too. at the gop convention. i just don't see enough of america. so you know, i don't parse it that the folks at the republican convention aren't americans. they are. >> i'm not saying that. >> i know you're not saying that. but what i'm saying is i see america, too. i just don't see enough of it at our convention. i'd like to see more of it when i was chairman. i emphasized in my first year, we want to expant and broaden the opportunity of this party to talk to every, black, white,

gay, straight. you want to put the gop hat on your head, we're proud to have you. the more we taking that attitude, the more we embrace the future, the stronger we'll be as party. >> michael steele, brave man there, former rnc chairman. >> eight more weeks. eight more weeks. >> all right. up next, it's one of the gop's biggest 2012 talking points. your social security's going broke. in the guest spot, meet the budget guru who says that is a bunch of baloney. buying this juicer online was unbelievable.

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this week our national debt officially eclipsed $16 trillion. that's the first time in history that's happened. mitt romney's team sure wants to

make you aware of that. >> if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point people could lose confidence in the u.s. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double dip recession. >> well, when politicians talk about getting our fiscal house in order, the conversation seems to lead to all sorts of scary sounding talk about social security and medicare being on the brink of collapse. our next guest says there's very little to all of those dire claims. in the guest spot is dean baker, the codirector of the center for economic and policy research. thanks for joining us. i wanted to take these maybe one by one with you because they are separate issues and often get conflated. social security and medicare. start with social security. and you can explain this. your basic point on this is, if we do nothing, this doesn't even

become a problem for maybe another 25 years, and even then, the problem isn't nearly as great as people seem to think it is. >> that's exactly right. the congressional budget office's projections are that the program left alone, you pay all benefits through the year 203. that's when it first faces a shortfall. that the point in time, we'll still have plenty of money coming in. the money would be able to pay about 80% of scheduled benefits. now, we won't want to see people take a 20% cut in benefits. the question is how big a shortfall is that. the size of that shortfall would be less than what it costs for the iraq war. it's about less than 1% of gdp. not a trivial amount by any means. the point is we paid for the iraq war. it didn't deb state economy. one could argue we should have had the war. the point is, it didn't devastate the economy. it's 25 years out. we didn't take 25 years to raise the money needed to fight the iraq war. people that badly misled about

the size of the problem facing social security, it's relatively distant. and really not that large in the scheme of things. we don't typically plan 25 years in advance for something like that. >> let's look at medicare because this one gets framed as a more immediate crisis than social security. you hear right now the talking point, i get this from paul ryan and a lot of other republicans although i don't want to make this a democrat/republican thing and i certainly hear democrats and republicans making the same point all the time. the talking point i hear most frequently, right now it is on course to go bankrupt in 2024. we need to address it right now. that bankruptcy claim though again, there's a lot of fine print there, isn't there? >> there is. there's a huge amount of fine print. a couple conviction points about that. first off, the obama administration deserves a lot of credit. they reduced the projected shortfall in medicare by about 70%. now we still project a shortfall beginning in 2024.

that's not that large a shortfall. over time though, it is projected to be a very big cost to the government. and the issue here isn't something broken about medicare. it's our health care system. that's why it's very disingenuous to talk about medicare as though it's somehow the government program that's a problem. the real problem is that you're health care costs are hugely out of line with what everyone else in the world pays. if you compare our per person health care costs, it's about twice as much as what they pay in canada, germany, the uk. and we have very little to show for that in the way of outcomes. the problem is we have to fix our health care system. president obama tried to do that with the affordable care act. didn't go the far enough. i'm happy to say that, but it was a big step in the right direction. to act like they've been negligent ignores what went on in the last four years. >> dean, willet me go back to social security for a minute. i remember reading a great piece in forbes by john t. harvey called why social security

cannot go bankrupt. he makes some of the same points. he says it's not a pension fund into which you put your money when you're young and from which you draw when you're old. it's an immediate transfer from workers today to retirees today. that's what it has always been and that's what it has to be. there is no other way for it to work last year we remember president obama said unless we reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling, he say we may not have money in the coffers to get the money out. maybe i don't understand the algebra of this. . how is that will possibleful social security can't go bankrupt and we're flush enough that you wouldn't have the enough to send out checks in a month. >> to be clear on this president obama was talking about we were hitting the debt ceiling, and this gets to a legal area that you know, i'm not a lawyer but i a lot of lawyers would disagree on this. the question is what checks go out if we're in ray debt ceiling

where the government literally can't pay its bills. should social security checks go out under those circumstances or not, i don't have the an answer to that. i can't answer the law on that because basically, if we've hit the debt ceiling, if you interpret the law strictly, what it would mean is they're payments the government can't blake social security would be among those payments, you know, i can't say. snow principle, the money is there for social security but if we've hit the debt ceiling and the government can't make all its payments, i don't know whether the checks go out for social security or not. >> another people are concerned about is the coming fiscal cliff. part of that is the expiration of the payroll tax cuts extended a couple of times. on the one hand, there's concern if you let that expire, that will be difficult for the economy to absorb. on the other hand, there's a concern if we get used to having this payroll tax cut, woo may not be appropriately funding social security. so should we extend the payroll

tax cut again in january? >> i have to say it's a really tough call for exactly the points you make. on the one hand, the economy desperately needs stimulus, putting more money in people's pocket, they're going to spend it. on the other hand, because you have such a political debate around this very important program, and in principle that money was being made up. so we did the last two years, we had the payroll tax cut. the money was made up dollar for dollar from money everyone general revenue. but we don't have an agreement. it's not as though everyone signed on that yes, we're going to pay a portion of social security taxes from general revenue. there's not been an greet on that. given the dynamics around the program, my own view is okay, let it go back. pay the tax rate. go back to 6.2% level and find some other way to get stimulus in the economy. hopefully we can get agreement on that. >> do you think we have a moral imperative to be there for older people when they get sick and get to social security age? >> absolutely. these are people overwhelmingly

these are people spent their life working. something they've paid into and contributed to and the idea that people are going to hit 65 and we're going to laugh at them and say you guys were suckers, i don't think we're that sort of country. we're not those sort of people. >> i don't think anyone thinks we are. i think fwron answer the question, we have a moral imperative to take care of our old people. >> we have a moral imperative to pay bills. we'll have to go to a commercial break right now. how about this for a segue, from the debt to fantasy political cage match. how can you not want to find out what the heck we're talking about, that's next as our coverage of the 2012 democratic convention rolls on.

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charlotte. i spoke to him back in august and asked him if he had aspirations beyond the mayor of newark. he was coy but last night he looked like a man ready to take on a higher office. maybe, say, fill chris christie's seat if he decides to run nationally in 2016. as long as we're talking political hypotheticals, we figured we would throw out potential match-ups for the next presidential race. here to help tus referee is she the people blogger for the "washington post" melinda henin berger. welcome. so one of the match-ups we arbitrarily put together is marco rubio versus julian castro. and i'm curious about your thoughts on this. my take is look marco rubio as a cuban-american and republican is a little redundant. republicans already get the cuban-american vote, and this idea that he'll have crossover appeal to a larger democratic sfik audience is a little

overblown whereas i think julian castro being from a red state like texas probably has norcross over appeal. what do you think? >> i i think they both could. it would be an exciting race to see. i was just interested in the echoes of their speeches. marco rubio's and julian castro. rubio saying my dad worked at the bar at the back of the room so i could stand at the front of the room and julian castro saying my mom and grandmother held a mop so i could hold the mic. little variations on the theme, julian talking more about his mom doing community organizing so that everyone could have that chance and marco rubio talking about individuals making it on their own. i think we learn a lot about, we tend to sometimes see the hispanic communities as a monolith. i think that would be a lot of

fun. i think both of them are obviously future superstars of their party. >> melinda, the jon stewart last week was mocking the rnc calling it the road to jeb bush 2016. i wanted to e-mail them and say no, you should call it the road to losing to hillary in 2016. i see everybody's going to lose to hillary. the most interesting competitor for hillary i think is condoleezza rice, which would be an extraordinary campaign, two smart women, widely admired, tough as nails. it would be an entirely different campaign than we've ever seen, a bit of like the '90s versus the double os once again. what do you think about that campaign. >> the two voter who's would have to be won over to that idea first would be condoleezza rice and hillary clinton. neither of them say they have interest in doing that. but were we to, i think that would be a campaign on a different level. not just because there would be two women in the race and

because of the gender echoes. but because as these two former secretaries of state, we would really be in -- and you saw this other night with the condoleezza rice's what i thought was a fantastic speech, we would really be talking at a very high level. i'm going to say optimistically america is ready for it. that would be a fun race. >> speaking of elevating the dialogue, our next hypothetical match-up, chris christie and joe biden. snifr get your five second delays ready for that one. >> christie obviously the tough guy from new jersey, biden the every man from delaware. my personal view on this quick take, i think that everybody's favorite uncle wins over the class bully. what do you think, melinda? >> i like both those guys a lot. i think it was mike gersen of the "washington post" who said joe biden is maybe the last human in american politics. i think it would be for those of

us who care most about the story, it would be a dream come true match-up if you were have to have mr. get the hell off the beach versus putting you all back in chains. anything could happen at any moment. >> it would be fun for all of us. >> not lacking in drama. >> certainly. another person who last night got a lot of 2016 buzz based on a phenomenal speech was governor deval patrick from massachusetts and steve kornacki talk to him about his future recently. >> you have said you're not going to run for re-election income 2014. you want to return to the private sector. >> i miss the private sector on payday. i can tell you that. you can stay involved from the private secretarieser, as well. there may be another time in life when i feel i have some contribution to make in public life, but that won't be at the tail end of my time as governor. >> so what do you think, steve? >> something interesting happened that the convention last night because when you talked about 2016 and the

speakers, the one everyone was talking about going into last night was martin o'malley, the governor of maryland. deval patrick came before that. when everybody left last night, they said the o'malley speech was a dud. deval patrick, there's something to watch there. i have a hard time believing he's not running for re-election in 2014. i have a hard time believing we've seen the last of him. the 2016 thing gets complicated because of hillary clinton. we thought of hillary clinton going into the 2008 race as a frontrunner like we'd never seen. she loses to barack obama. her front-runnerhood heading into 2008 has nothing on her front-runnerhood heading into 2016. they are image and stature dwarfs what she brought in 2008. the big knock on her head in 2008, was democrats said she may be too polarizing. that concern has completely gone away because the republicans laid down for her. if she runs in 2016, i don't

know if deval or anybody else has a chance. if she doesn't run, this thing opens up quickly. biden as sort of a nominal front-runner with kerns about his age and then you get down to andrew cuomo and deval patrick at that point is right up there in that mix. i don't know exactly what he's looking at that. i looked at that speech last night and said we have not heard the last of this guy. >> steve, is cory booker on that list? >> he may have trouble in 2014 in the city of newark or running for senate against frank lautenberg. i'm not going to start talking about 2016 till he gets out of new jersey. >> melinda, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. up next, the history-making change at the dnc you may not have seen in the headlines. ca neer

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>> oh. one of the biggest stories of the week is the democratic party platform full support for marriage equality. the plank says the democratic party is for equal treatment under the law for same-sex couples. and opposes amendments to deny equal protection to same sex coup counsels. the republican platform affirms the right to not recognize same-sex marriage and backs a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. there's a stark divide between the parties. i'm proud of the democratic party for having the courage to make it art of its statement about identity, about extending liberty and the pursuit of happiness to gay americans and committed to battling against romantic segregation. this is significant modern civil rights issue, and telling certain people your love matters and your love can be sanctified but your love cannot be, that says your love is important, yours is not. so you are important and you are not. these are critical issues. this is what i think steve, the

democratic party does so well extending rights to people and just making american, you know, braced for people who haven't traditionally had a part in the american dream. look, i think the battle for marriage equality across america is going to be long and it's going to be hard. but the gains can never be demos never going backwards. and i think that the demographics are on the side of victory, young people are in favor of marriage equality, generally, and older people make up much of the resistance, one day the people who were younger and who were against right going to have to look at their grandkids and explain why you were the archie bunker of gay marriage. >> yeah, well, look, i mean, i think the democratic party probably deserves credit for being the first to take the step on had. almost something that happened in spite -- something that happened in spite of the democratic party's leadership. what i was struck -- struck by watching all of those speeches last might was how far behind opinion within their own party and opinion across the country president obama and his --

leaders and democratic party were on this issue until may. and how much of the fluke it was really an accident almost they embraced and their mat form this year. this was an issue support for gay marriage among democrats was a majority issue. for president obama came out for this spring and issue now becoming a majority issue along all americans and yet, what it took was joe biden going on "meet the press" and having one of his biden gaffes where i don't have a problem with this. the initial reaction from the white house to that behind the scenes was furious. >> they had always knew that before the -- before the convention good i don't believe they planned to devote convention to the gay marriage. it felt like last night watching that because the party was ahead of obama and ahead of the rest of the leaders -- party's leadership on this. i think it was an accident ended up in the platform in 2012 and not 2016. >> there was an embrace of a number of social issues last night from gay marriage to obama care. the policy and the term as well

as abortion, had a very prominent role in last night's lineup. it was referenced throughout the programming and ed morissey from hot air called it abortion palooza because it came up so much. i wrote about this today. feels risky to me for two reasons. i-want to get your take, guys. for one, the national sentiment just isn't there, gal up poll from the summer pro-choice. self-identifiers record low. planned parenthood held a rally at the dnc yesterday. very few people showed up. even among pro choice people, they are uncomfortable within an overtly celebratory kind of emotion around a procedure that no one wants to become popular. and finally, i think it is a mistake to make any social issue front and center at a year when so many people are just concerned about the economy. >> well, i would argue would things. first of all, i think that calling the social issue, actually distracts from the fact that family planning is an economic issue. i mean, for women, birds control

is called birth control because it gives women control over their lives. the ability to -- to enter the work force and plan their lives in that way, so that's number one. number two, i think that you have a point about the way that framed. and -- i heard it called last might by deval patrick. spoke about ending you wanted pregnancies. that tow into is very callus phrasing. it sounds like this is a flip decision made by women which it absolutely is not. i think it depends a lot on framing it as being a matter of trusting women to make their own decisions. >> all right. up next, steve gets us ready for tonight's big speech from president clinton by looking to the past. bubba a smooth talker. professor kornacki remembers an address that almost killed a bill. a history lesson next. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano!

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he's only about halfway through his prepared text. and he should have been done about five minutes ago. >> i think it is a safe bet bill clinton's speech night will go a lot better than that one. that was 24 years ago in atlanta when he delivered the nominating speech for michael dukakis. he was a lot younger then and ambitious. eager to make a national name for himself and run for president some day. next speech, his big chance. prime time spot in front of a national audience and he blew it. it was flat and went on and on.

by the end, delegates were openly mocking him. just how bad 'twas fallout? an arkansas columnist who actually liked clinton suggested it ruined his future in politics. clinton was known as the wind bag governor of arkansas who gave a god-awful speech at the convention. how do you get out of a jam like that? when you are a politician and become a national joke there is only one smart thing to do. laugh along with everyone else. that's exactly what clinton did. johnny carson asked him to come on "the tonight show" and he agreed. few days later, this happened. >> i thank you for coming here tonight. my first question is -- how are you? >> in my book, that might have been the original comeback kid moment. how clinton -- helped clinton move on from the disaster of

atlanta. nearly every big name democrat, they all decided to skip the race. that lack of top-tier competition helped clinton survive a wave of scandal and claimed the 1992 democratic nomination. a time he gave his acceptance speech that summer, memories of atlanta were faded and distant. clinton did make sure to give them a nod at his speech. >> i ran for president this year for one reason and one reason only. i wanted to come back to this convention and finish that speech i started four years ago. >> and now tonight bill clinton will deliver another nominating speech. this time for barack obama. political career remarkable for its many feats of survival. getting kicked out as governor in 1908 and winning the job back, surviving the 1994 gop revolution. fighting off impeachment and most recently overcoming the damage he inflicted on himself in the 2008 primarie